Ethical Guidelines

Our journal is committed to respect high standards of ethics in the editing and reviewing process and malpractice statement. The best practice guidelines were developed in response to requests from editors for guidance about a wide range of ethical issues. Commitments of authors related to authorship are also very important for a high standard of ethics and publishing.

We follow closely the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). It was established to provide a range of services and products aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at editors and publishers of academic journals and to provide advice and guidance on best practice for dealing with ethical issues in journal publishing. COPE consults editors and publishers on all aspects of publication ethics and, in practically, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. It is possible to find an example of a recognized publication ethics and malpractice statement at http://publicationethics.org/files/u2/NewCode.pdf . A code of conduct and guidelines can be found at http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines.

Below is a summary of our key expectations of authors, peer-reviewers and editors.

Authors’ responsibilities

Authors are obliged to participate in peer review process.

All authors have to contribute significantly to the research.

Statements that all data in the articles are real and authentic.

All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

No plagiarism, no fraudulent data is allowed.

It is forbidden to publish same research in more than one journal.

Authors should ensure that any studies involving human or animal subjects conform to national, local and institutional laws and requirements.

Reviewers’ responsibilities

To contribute to the decision-making process, and to assist in improving the quality of the published paper by reviewing the manuscript objectively.

Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research founders.

Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited.

Reviewed articles should be treated confidentially.

Editors’ responsibilities

Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.

To accept a paper when reasonably certain.

Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept.

When errors are found to promote publication of correction or retraction.

To preserve anonymity of reviewers.

To act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.

Publishing ethics issues

Monitoring/safeguarding publishing ethics by the editorial board.

Maintain the integrity of the academic record.

Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.

Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

p-ISSN: 1313-8820
e-ISSN: 1314-412X

About

Agricultural Science and Technology /AST/ was founded in 2009 by Faculty of Agriculture, Trakia University,
Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.
It’s is published in English in one volume of 4 issues per year, as a printed journal and in electronic form.

All issues in 2017 are printed with the financial support of the Project No DNP 05-21/20.12.2016, financed by Fund ‘Scientific Research’ grant Bulgarian scientific Periodicals.